Black Sheep

Host of Black Sheep William Ray recommends a new RNZ podcast for history fans, NZ Wars Collection - Kohikohinga o nga pakanga o Aotearoa. We’re bringing all our New Zealand Wars stories together in your favourite podcast app, with another chapter on the way. Each chapter zeroes in on one of the many wars, battles, and skirmishes that make up what are collectively known as the New Zealand Wars. Search for NZ Wars Collection in your podcast app to follow the series.
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The founding father of West Auckland - Don Buck was notorious in the early 20th century for his hard drinking, hard living gum digging camp in the foothills of the Waitakere ranges. Black Sheep investigates the legend of this enigmatic and feared folk hero - the original Westie.
Watch the video of Marianne Simpkins reading her poem The Ballad of Don Buck's Hill
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“Oh Mummy save me from Dr Gray, because teacher says he’s coming today, and if I’m stupid he’ll take me away”. William Ray looks at the life and legacy of Dr Theodore Gray, a staunch eugenicists who was head of New Zealand's Mental Hospitals Department for 20 years.
Further reading:
Statement of Hilary Stace to the Royal Commission on Abuse in Care
A Brief History of Disability in Aotearoa by Dr Hilary Stace
DBNZ Biography of Dr Theodore Gray by Dr Warwick Brunton
The Fertility of the Unfit by Dr William Chapple
Mental Defectives Amendment Act 1928
Statement of Tony Ryder to the Royal Commission on Abuse in Care
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In part two, we look at the years Elsdon Best spent living in Te Urewera, attempting to preserve knowledge he believed was on the brink of being lost forever, the remarkable relatioship he built with Tūhoe leaders, and how that relationship fell apart.
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Described in his own time as "the white Tōhunga of Tuhoeland" and by some today as a "structural rascist" who "stole" knowledge, it's fair to say Elsdon Best is a controvesial character. In the first of a two part episode, Black Sheep traces the early life of this self-taught ethnologist.
Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details